About us

Established in 1975 by players and lovers of soccer, and modelled itself on Dinamo Zagreb by which it names itself. After establishing its identity the club started playing in the fourth industrial division, winning its championship and is promoted.

In record time and with unbelievable results Dinamo finds itself in the fourth State Division, where it spends two years. Dinamo earns its promotion into the third State Division where it wins all its games, and earns maximum points with some game results being 20:0 in our favour.

After such results the club was promoted into the first State Division jumping the second division along the way.

In 1982 Dinamo takes over St. Albans Saints Soccer Club, which was in bankruptcy and falling apart. Through that deal it gained three playing grounds on today’s address at Churchill Reserve, with the guarantee that the Dinamo name be incorporated in St Albans Saints Soccer Club.

Coming to Churchill Reserve and with help from the Croatian Community it builds Club Rooms and a Function Room for 400 people.

With the establishment, of the Victorian Premiere League St. Albans takes its part with fluctuating results.

In 1998 the Saints win the League, which is the biggest success so far for the Club.

St. Albans Saints at the moment have two senior teams 1st and Reserves with several junior teams and around 160 junior players, which gives the Saints great resources to draw from.

St. Albans Saints is a sister club to Melbourne Knights whose side have occupied many of the Saints players throughout the years.

Besides soccer St. Albans Saints is the home of folkloric group “Sokadija”. In the last few years Saints home becomes a home for our Senior Citizens which numbers 200 members, and is one of the largest Croatian Senior Citizens Clubs in Melbourne.

This is a brief outline of our Clubs history so far which was established in 1954.

St Albans Saints Soccer Club is an Australian football (soccer) club from St Albans, Australia (a suburb of Melbourne) established by Croatian immigrants to the area. The club is a regular participant in the Australian-Croatian Soccer Tournament. The club is well known for having produced many great players over the years, including many that have gone on to play for its sister club the Melbourne Knights. The club currently competes in the Victorian State League Division 1.

History

The club was formed by Croatian migrants as Dinamo in 1975. In 1982 the club took over the German backed St Albans Soccer Club which was near bankruptcy. The club became St Albans Dinamo and took residence at Churchill Reserve in St Albans. The club still remains there till this day. The club would go onto build a social club there which holds 400 patrons. It has become an important meeting place for the local Croatian community.

St Albans Dinamo won its first title in 1983, winning the Victorian State League Division 2 with Melbourne Knights legends Billy Vojtek (former Socceroo) and Branko Culina leading the way. Billy Vojtek was the leagues top goal scorer with 16 goals. The following year the club joined the Victorian Premier League, skipping Division 1, after several VPL clubs joined the expanded National Soccer League. The club had a poor first year in 1984, finishing 12th and narrowly surviving relegation. By the late 1980s the club had become one of the leading sides in the competition. From 1986 to 1989 the club finished in the top 5 each season. 1988 was the season the club came closest to winning the championship, they finished 4th only 3 points behind first place. In this time the club produced many great players like Ivan Duzel, Ivan Kelic, Velimir Kupersak and Oliver Pondeljak, all of whom went onto great success in the National Soccer League.

Over the next decade the club would struggle, with fluctuating results. The only joy came in 1993 with the club finishing 5th and making the finals. But the club was eliminated at the first phase, losing to Sunshine George Cross. But this period was marked by more young talent being produced by the club, in particular Ante Kovacevic and Tom Pondeljak. Both players went to win the National Soccer League championship with the Melbourne Knights.

In 1998 the club had its most successful season. The club finished first, winning the Minor Premiership. Striker Harry Karl had a great season scoring 23 goals, to finish 2nd on the goal scoring chart. The club made the Grand Final against the Bulleen Inter Kings. In a thrilling match Bulleen were up 2-0 by the 54th minute. But 10 minutes later St Albans had leveled in a remarkable comeback. The joy was short lived, with seven minutes remaining Bulleen scored what would be the winning goal.

After this stand out season the club would go back to struggling, being a mid table side. In 2005 the club was relegated from the Victorian Premier League after having played 23 seasons in the state’s top league. Needing only a draw to survive the drop, the club was relegated in the final round after losing to Heidelberg.

Supporters

The clubs supporters are primarily from the local Croatian community in St Albans, as well as from surrounding suburbs such as Sunshine, Keilor, Taylors Lakes, Delahey, Hillside and Sydenham. Though their support also stretches out to the greater Croatian community in Melbourne. They are second most popular Croatian backed club in Victoria behind the Melbourne Knights.